Communication devices such as telephones are often used to obtain information from information services. A user of the communication device may wish to contact the information service to obtain a wide variety of information including a bank balance, an airline flight status, a weather update, a sports score, a stock price, or other types of information. The user may also wish to complete a transaction with the information service including paying a bill, making a purchase, making a technical support request, closing an account, or other type of transaction. These types of interactions may be accomplished through a voice conversation, a text based interaction which does not involve a voice interaction, or through other means.
Many information services like those described above provide toll free telephone numbers through which users may contact the information service. The toll free number typically allows the user to make calls to the information service at no additional cost to the user. Toll free numbers are typically virtual numbers in that they are not associated with a physical destination, device, or geographic location. When a toll free number is called, the communication system typically performs a lookup process. The lookup process translates the virtual toll free number to a geographic number associated with a geographic destination, device, or location. The operator of the information service may change the physical location to which the calls to a toll free number get routed without changing the toll free number itself.
Overview
A communication system for providing access to an information service includes a communication interface and a processor. The communication interface is configured to receive a request for an information session between a communication device and a virtual destination identified in the request. The virtual destination is associated with service destinations that provide the information service. The processor is configured to select one destination from the service destinations based on a type of the information session. The service destinations include a voice platform and a text message platform and the type of the information session is a voice session or a text message session. The processor is also configured to initiate the information session between the communication device and the one destination.